Crying Babies and a Cry for Heaven

atFebruary 28, 2018

Flying across an ocean is a great equalizer.

Everyone is uncomfortable. No one can really sleep despite their body’s cry for rest. The food leaves everyone feeling hungry but also, without desire to eat what is handed to them. And, at the end, we all walk away feeling dirty for no particular reason other than the air which leaves us all inexplicably musty.

But what I find most interesting about these flights, is the way people interact with the little ones around them.

I have never flown across an ocean with a small child, but I have many friends who have done it alone; going to or from visiting a deployed military spouse. And I applaud them.

I applaud them because it takes courage to walk down an aisle with a rambunctious toddler and face glaring eyes, annoyed by simply the presence of a child.

But I wonder if they are really bothered by the presence of the child or the constant reminder of the state they are in.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the little squirms and outbursts strike a cord of annoyance deep within us because they echo the cry that we are stifling within our hearts. We are annoyed, no, often disgusted by our own humanity. As much as our modern era champions for independence, we are so very dependent on so many things. Things that come to a head while we are trapped on an airplane.

We need food and water. Regularly. The tiny bags of peanuts and stale soda do not quench this desire. We need to feel like we are in control but when we are trapped in a seat, we are unable to even control our own comfort. We strive for cleanliness but even the air around us leaves us feeling contaminated.

But we pretend like we are fine instead of, as the children do, acknowledging the state in which we find ourselves.

And for the most part, this is a good thing.

If we all acted out on every impulse, there would be chaos.

Part of forming a civilized, mature society is learning to deal with discomfort and inconvenience no matter how hard we try to arrange our lives to avoid it.

As I deboard my plane and watch the faces around me brace for whatever their destination brings them, I think we are deceiving ourselves to pretend like we only try to ignore the discomfort on a plane.

Christ said that we must become like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. As I looked around my plane, I saw children expressing honesty about the situation they found themselves in. They didn’t sugar coat it or try to civilize it by pretending it wasn’t an uncomfortable situation, they just expressed annoyance that things weren’t as they should be.

As Christians, we shouldn’t be at home in this world.

We shouldn’t shrug off another shooting, another person on the side of the road asking for food, another horror showing our true state as just the way the world works. We should be shaken and bothered by it.

But too often, we just go on, as I did on that plane, pretending that this is a normal situation instead of recognizing that this is not our home and longing for the redemption of Creation.

When we fail to acknowledge that all is not as it should be, we suppress the hope that we have in the life to come and the crucial role we’ve been given in re-creating the world to be as God intended.

So next time you fly, take a look at the children around you.

While I do not encourage crying aloud on an airplane, I do encourage you to let their cries remind you that this world is not your home and to use it as a reminder to re-center your heart around the hope you have in the New Creation and the joy that is coming your way when you finally arrive at your true home.

Bailey Suzio

Bailey Suzio’s journey started out in Michigan, where she grew up as the oldest of 10 (yes, ten) children, and has led her to Hawaii with her husband and their two dogs. In addition to her love for the Lord and her family, her great passions are coffee and collecting an exorbitant amount of books. Bailey has spent the last few years teaching and working with a local church. She writes at http://thethinplace.net/ about her life, faith, and infertility journey.

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